Explore Church Forests in the Ethiopian Highlands

The Ethiopian Orthodox Tewhido Church has a unique cultural tradition of preserving small patches of indigenous Afromontane forests, called "Debr" (or "church forests"), that can cover tens or even hundreds of hectares around church buildings.

Interview Religious and Community Leaders

Though church forests are usually off-limits to "outsiders", Co-PI Dr. Meg Lowman has established a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with the Ethiopian Orthodox Church granting us access to the church forests and surrounding communities.

Collect Ecological Data

In addition to conducting social surveys on church forest uses and management, our student researchers work with Ethiopian priests, farmers, and students to collect an array of ecological data on indigenous plants, insects, and aquatic life.

Conduct Research with Faculty Mentors

REU Site students work as fully funded research collaborators, developing research designs, conducting social surveys and ecological experiments and analyzing findings side by side with experienced environmental studies and biology professors.

Owing to ongoing civil unrest in Ethiopia, the Summer 2017 program will be U.S.-based, including 7 weeks of training and research on the Colby College campus in Waterville, Maine drawing on remote sensing data, ecological samples from northern Ethiopia, and social survey data collected by partners in Ethiopia, and one week of lab-based research and results-sharing with collaborators at the California Academy of Sciences.

Colby College in Waterville, Maine is excited to host the Research Experience for Undergraduates (REU) Site Undergraduate Research into the Cultural, Economic and Ecological Significance of Church Forests in South Gondar, Ethiopia.

A collaborative effort by the Colby College Environmental Studies Program, the Colby College Biology Department, the TREE Foundation, and Ethiopia’s Debre Tabor University, in Summer 2017 this REU Site will provide eight American undergraduate students from diverse academic backgrounds an opportunity to conduct pathbreaking interdisciplinary research on the cultural, economic and ecological roles of church forests in Ethiopia.

This material is based upon work supported by the National Science Foundation under Grant No. SMA-1359367. Any opinions, findings, and conclusions or recommendations expressed in this material are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of the National Science Foundation.